Sherwood Schwartz, ‘Brady Bunch’ Creator, Dies at 94

Sherwood Schwartz, a television producer and sitcom creator best known for his beloved 1960s and 1970s shows “The Brady Bunch” and “Gilligan’s Island,” has passed away in Los Angeles. He was 94. Schwartz also worked as a writer on such well-known programs as “Ozzie and Harriet” and “My Favorite Martian,” and won an Emmy writing for the variety program, “The Red Skelton Show.”

Schwartz wrote in his book “Brady, Brady, Brady” that he was reading The Los Angeles Times one morning in 1966 when he saw an item that said that “In the year 1965, more than 29 percent of all marriages included a child or children from a previous marriage.” “I knew instinctively that statistic was the key to a new and unusual TV series,” he wrote. “It was a revelation! The first blended family! His kids and her kids! Together!”

His original title for the show was “Yours & Mine”; the name later became “The Brady Bunch.”

He created “Gilligan’s Island” while he was searching for “an idea with great social significance” in which he could show how people from different backgrounds could get along if they were forced to live together. One night, at 3 a.m., he woke up with the idea: what if the people in question were stuck on an island? His wife told him to go to sleep; he didn’t.

Schwartz helped bring the characters from the fictional Brady family to the big screen multiple times, including 1995′s hit, “The Brady Bunch Movie.” He brought his witty touch to the theme songs of both of his most popular television shows, writing the opening tune about the three-hour boat tour gone wrong on “Gilligan’s Island.”

You can leave your thoughts about Schwartz and his work in the comments.

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